GAZA, (PIC)
At this time every year, the sea off Gaza used to breathe to the rhythm of the sardine season. Silver swarms approach the shore, and nets are filled with enough to give thousands of families an additional reason for steadfastness.
However, mid-April this year passed heavily, without a season, without abundance, and without that seasonal hope that fishermen are accustomed to. For the third consecutive year, sardines are absent from its tables, not because the sea has become scarce, but because reaching it has become besieged. In the middle of the Mediterranean, Israeli warships stand as a dividing line between the fisherman and his livelihood, while the permitted distance is reduced to a few meters that are barely enough to catch a fish.
An economic pillar
Fishermen in Gaza say that the sardine season is not just a natural cycle, but an economic and nutritional pillar for thousands of families. It usually extends from mid-April until early summer, and returns again in autumn, bringing with it abundant types such as sardines and mackerel. But this rhythm was broken, and with it, the balance of the daily life of fishermen was broken.
According to the Fishermen’s Syndicate, more than 80 million dollars are suffered in initial losses for the fishing sector, including hundreds of destroyed boats and large vessels prevented from sailing. The fisherman no longer sails, but rather crawls on the edge of the sea in small primitive boats, which produce only a little, barely enough to satisfy the hunger of a day.
Years ago, sardine production alone reached about 30 tons daily. Today, it is almost vanishing. Between the two figures, there are heavy stories: between 200 to 230 fishermen fell as martyrs during the Israeli genocide on Gaza, and thousands of others lost their tools, or their sources of livelihood, or both together.
A little hope
In Khan Yunis, Ibrahim Abu Odeh sits on the edge of a small boat known locally as the “Hasaka.” He bought it with four other fishermen after many were forced to sell their vessels. The boat does not need fuel, and this is an advantage in a time of scarcity, but it also carries only a little hope.
Ibrahim says that the sardine season was their annual opportunity to compensate for the year’s losses, when the fish approach the shore, the trip becomes shorter, and the return is more plentiful. As for now, every sea trip carries with it double anxiety: from danger, from loss, and from a merciless market, where fish are bought at low prices. Behind this small boat stands a family of six members, displaced from their home, living near the coast in harsh conditions. The sea has not only become a source of livelihood, but has also become a fragile haven from an even harsher reality.
Extensive destruction
For his part, the Director General of the General Administration of Fisheries, Engineer Walid Thabet, describes what happened as extensive destruction that affected all parts of the fishing sector. More than 100 vessels were destroyed, and about 1,800 small boats were damaged, in addition to hundreds of fishermen’s rooms and vital facilities, including ice factories, fish farms, and solar energy systems. Even the infrastructure that preserves the catch after it leaves the sea was not spared.
As for the sea itself, it has narrowed. The fishing area has shrunk to between 200 and 300 meters only, which has turned the coast into a space crowded with fishing rods and nets, and led to overfishing in an environment that cannot tolerate it. Before the war, Gaza’s fish production exceeded 5,000 tons annually, in addition to hundreds of tons from fish farms. Today, the numbers are declining, as if the sea itself is being drained.
In this scene, the absence of sardines does not seem like just a seasonal loss, but rather a sign of a deeper imbalance: when the sea is besieged, life is besieged. And when the fisherman is prevented from sailing, he does not only lose a day of work, but he loses a natural extension of his existence.